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Dr. Francisco Moreno Assumes New AHSC Leadership Role to Advance Diversity and Inclusion in Health Care

Francisco A. Moreno, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, whose leadership has been instrumental as the deputy dean of diversity and inclusion at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson, has been named assistant vice president for diversity and inclusion at the Arizona Health Sciences Center.

The Arizona Health Sciences Center (AHSC) is committed to improving the diversity within the health sciences workforce. This commitment extends to the education, training, recruitment and employment of a diverse faculty, staff and student body that is reflective of the Arizona communities it serves.

In this new role, Dr. Moreno will continue the work he began at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson and will work collaboratively with other diversity leaders at the UA Colleges of Nursing, Public Health, Pharmacy and the College of Medicine – Phoenix, to create a comprehensive network of diversity-and-inclusion initiatives, meaningful diversity-and-inclusion programs and strategies to improve the diversity of the health-care workforce statewide.

“Diversity is essential to promote health and improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease for all the people of Arizona and beyond, through education, research and patient care,” said Joe G.N. “Skip” Garcia, MD, UA senior vice president for health sciences and interim dean, UA College of Medicine – Tucson. “As a member of the AHSC leadership team, Dr. Moreno’s efforts to improve diversity will have a significant impact on our strategic priorities to effectively address the health-care needs of the increasingly diverse populations of Arizona and the nation.”

Among Dr. Moreno’s extensive new duties, he is responsible for promoting a unified culture that values diversity and inclusion as vehicles for excellence at AHSC, the larger UA community, primary partners and the region. He also will be responsible for developing a unified vision and mission for diversity at AHSC, including leading strategic diversity planning efforts. He will work directly with the deans, directors and other university leadership to implement policies and initiatives and collaborate with human resources, deans/directors, other health sciences leadership and university offices regarding AHSC diversity issues.

Dr. Moreno also will seek to infuse diversity into the instruction and content of new and existing courses and coordinate and develop diversity training, in collaboration with health sciences colleges and centers and other university departments. In addition, he will identify barriers to recruitment and retention of underrepresented populations and support strategies to overcome these barriers for students, faculty and staff.

About Dr. Moreno:Dr. Moreno has served as executive vice chair, interim department head and as director for inpatient, outpatient, residency and research programs in the UA Department of Psychiatry. He has a special interest in working with the underserved and has established clinical, educational and research collaborations to decrease the gap of mental health services for immigrants in Arizona.

Since 2009, he has served as institutional representative to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Group on Diversity and Inclusion (GDI). In 2010, he was elected Western Region Representative of the AAMC GDI. He also served as a member of the first elected GDI National Steering Committee from 2010 to 2012. In this capacity, he helped identify strategic priorities for diversity, inclusion and equity applicable to all AAMC U.S. and Canadian member colleges.

A UA faculty member since 1997, Dr. Moreno has served in a variety of roles at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson related to academic administration; undergraduate, graduate and continuing medical education; faculty development; promotion; research compliance; resource utilization; and community advocacy. He is a former chairman of the Faculty Diversity Advisory Committee at the UA College of Medicine – Tucson. Originally from Mexico, Dr. Moreno received his medical degree from the University of Baja, California, then completed his psychiatry residency and research fellowship training in neuropsychopharmacology at the UA. He has conducted extensive research in the biology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. An expert psychopharmacologist, he is involved in clinical, educational and consultative activities in this area.

About AHSC:The Arizona Health Sciences Center (AHSC) at the University of Arizona is a network of health-related organizations and activities unique in the state and region. Arizona’s only academic health sciences center, AHSC is based on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson and maintains a growing presence on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix. From these vantage points, AHSC reaches across the state of Arizona and well beyond its borders to provide health-care education, research, patient care and service for Arizonans and their neighbors today and for the future.